Moving and storage expenses related to the disaster (moving and storing property to avoid additional disaster damage while disaster-related repairs are being made to the home).

Other necessary expenses or serious needs as determined by FEMA.

Do you notice that third item? Pretty broad, eh? This might not be a bad time to mention that fraud is frowned upon. On the other hand, it’s not that often that your government offers you help. It’s only logical to accept the help you’re being offered (especially since you’re paying for it, right). Click here to go the Assistance Page on the FEMA site and see what you can score.

On Day 8 of the blackout, without power, ice, and the contents of my refirgerators and freezers depleted, I placed an order for a generator on-line, figuring FEMA would cover about $700 of the cost. (FEMA, of course, was unclear about this: first issuing a statement that generators are NOT covered, then correcting itself. Helluva job, Brownie.) A local distributor called—the way it works, you order on-line, but local distributors get to fulfill— to say that it could not issue an invoice because their power was out, and that from experience they knew that unless the invoice was issued at the time power was out for the customer, FEMA would not reimburse. I got my power restored on Day 9. On Day 13 the distributor called to ask me if I wanted to go ahead with the purchase. Next time, I said.

Pretty screwed-up system, wouldn’t you say? Puts prospective customers in a foot-race with the power company and the generator distributor! Are they out to help us or manufacture arbitrary rules?

And hey—how come the distributor of the generator didn’t have a generator to prevent power loss?

I’m going to go ahead and call bullshit on Hugh’s story, in part because “how come the distributor of the generator didn’t have a generator to prevent power loss,” but mainly because i don’t buy the one about receipts not being able to be issued.

I shopped at the Best Buy on Pines Blvd the weekend after Wilma. The power was out, so employees with flashlights walked customers to the department and helped them find loot. Cashires hand-wrote receipts and used portable calculators to calculate cash-only transactions. No problemo.

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